How PE Licensure Has Changed

Interesting article by Kathy Hart in the October issue of NCEES’s Licensure Exchange. Hart is the executive director of the Oklahoma State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, and she writes about the changes in licensure over the past 20 years.

She mentions three in particular:

Exam Administration“In 1993, all exams were on paper and used #2 pencils that the board staff sharpened by hand before every exam administration. Exams were shipped to the board office (in a not particularly secure manner) and a couple of days were spent unboxing and lining up the exams to be distributed (in a not particularly secure manner) to the different exam sites, using handmade seating charts. Examinees could bring in whatever calculators they wanted and as much material as they could carry.”

Mobility“Twenty years ago, applications for licensure were printed and mailed (by snail mail) to anyone pursuing licensure. The application form had to be hand-typed, signed in front of a notary, and mailed back to the board office. The staff would receive the application form, process the application manually—including typing individual reference letters to be mailed out to the references—and request verification forms from other states by mail. Once the application was complete, it would be placed on the agenda for the next scheduled board meeting, which could be another two months away depending on the timing of completion of the application. The NCEES Record existed, but not in its current format, and no designation such as Model Law Engineer existed.”

Review of Applications With Non-U.S. Degrees“Two decades ago, no formal degree evaluations were conducted. The board requested original transcripts from the non-U.S. universities—and at times those were not available, so we had no research available to us. So basically, if they could produce a document, they would be accepted.”

What changes have you seen in licensure over the past 20 years? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.